I’m gonna do this review a little bit different since there’s so much to cover.
Instead of tellin you the specs, I’ll talk about my experiences with the phone while
I show you the specs on screen, and you can skip to the specific chapter that you wanna
watch using the chapter markers on this video.
I’ve spent a solid month and a half playing with and using the new Samsung Galaxy S22
Ultra.
I still don’t think this is the perfect Android phone..
It’s close but not quite there.
There’s a few hiccups I experienced but overall, but I’m not hyper critical and
I do love it overall.
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Shoutout to my newest smores, Ben, Amber, and Ray - thank you for the support and for
making this video possible via Patreon and Buy me a coffee.
I bought this phone for about $250 after my $700 trade in credit for my S21 Ultra, the
Samsung Shop App 7.5% discount, and some rewards I had racked up to redeem.
By the way, if you want a pretty sweet 5% discount as a new Samsung customer, hit up
my referral link and coupon code below.
You can even use that for a new TV or appliances or whatever, so you can definitely save some
money.
The phone retails for $1199.99 and goes up to $1599.99 for the 1TB model.
I’m starting to see discounts on it though so don’t pay full price.
The preorder process was a freaking headache because 1) the shop app wasn’t automatically
adding the 7.5% discount and that’s like a $50 difference, and 2) the checkout screen
was constantly removing items and throwing up errors.
It made me feel like Samsung didn’t want my money and I hope they fix those problems
for their next major product release because I almost didn’t buy one at all.
The major reason I bought it was to review it, but if I didn’t have this job, I woulda
just said “f it”, and given up.
The one I bought is the Phantom White color but it’s available in a slew of other colors
as well.
None of them really peaked my interest so I went with the one that would compliment
my usual choice of accessories.
Disappointingly, the violet and pink gold colors are only available for the smaller
phone models.
Hopefully one day we’ll start seeing more diversity in terms of color choices for top
tier flagship phones instead of your basic white, black, blue, red and green.
The design is corning gorilla glass victus on the back but it’s matte and has a kinda
soft touch to it and it looks velvety smooth.
It doesn’t pick up fingerprints or oils from your hands so it keeps it lookin’ new.
The frame is aluminum and does pick up fingerprints easily.
It is a rectangle.
The corners are not super curved, though the display IS absolutely curved. and the very
angular edges can make it annoying to hold because
that corner will dig into your hand.
This is a little better with my case but it’s still a big phone.
It’s larger than my Pixel 6 Pro.
It’s also on the heavier side for phones.
I hate that the one speaker on the bottom is on the left side because my palm often
covers it up.
The second speaker is at the top of the phone and fires forward.
Port placement is generally the same as previous gens, and it’s still IP68, so I was using
this at the top of a ski slope while it was snowing and I wasn’t worried about snow
getting in the port.
The cool thing about this design is even though the S21 Ultra supported an SPen, it wasn’t
built in so it was not easily accessible day to day unless you bought a bulky case.
The S22 Ultra does have the Spen built in, and it’s also IP68.
The Spen uses the same GUI as other phones with this capability.
You can easily click it out of it’s port to use it.
It has a built in battery which you’re likely never gonna run low and it’ll make noise
and vibrate if you leave it behind.
I like that I can use it to write out text, it also makes video and photo editing really
precise in apps like adobe rush or mix.
I love the display, it’s really beautiful.
It’s SUPER BRIGHT outside which makes it really easy to see on a sunny day.
It also gets quite dim for nighttime use.
The display is big though, so kinda bulky for one handed use but there is a one handed
mode.
If I jump from my iPhone 12 Pro Max to this phone, the S22 Ultra really shows off it’s
higher refresh rate and it’s super smooth.
Watching HDR content on here looks beautiful, and it’s easy for me to critique my content
creation on this screen since it’s high quality.
All those super fun customizations like the border actions for the always on notifications
screen are all there as expected, and that makes using the Samsung One UI a unique experience
compared to other Android phones.
It does come with Android 12, with One UI 4, and since release it’s had several updates
to the Google Play system, the OS and security patches, so make sure to check for those if
you buy one.
Coming from Android 12 on Pixel, the Samsung software is a bit annoying - for example,
I turn off Samsung pay when you swipe up because I prefer swiping up to get to my Home screen.
I dislike bixby and generally never use it,
so I immediately switch everything I can to Google’s assistant.
I prefer Google news when swiping from the left over Samsung Free.
So, lots to edit and customize and lots of time in System to ensure the phone is set
up with my preferences.
Edge panels which are only available on the Ultra are fun to use and make quickly accessing
apps super easy.
One of my main critiques though is with the operating system.
It’s a fast phone with this upgraded Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor and the 12GB
ram that comes in the 256GB model.
But sometimes apps still crash, like instagram randomly closed on me one day while I was
posting a photo.
The camera shutter speed is super slow so it’s incredibly tough to get a decent photo
on my dog when using the general settings.
I can hold the shutter button down to take a burst of photos though.
I don’t do a lot of mobile gaming but to test the graphical rendering and power, I
ran 3D Mark tests and got great results at the very top of the list when compared to
other phones on the market.
The Ultrasonic Fingerprint sensor is fast, efficient, and works every time.
I don’t have a screen protector on here, so I’ll test it more once I install one.
It’s much, MUCH better than the sensor in the Pixel 6 screen - and if you wanna deep
dive into the differences and why I love ultrasonic, check out my video all about security and
reliability of different kinds of sensors linked here.
2D face unlock is also included via the front facing camera.
It’s also fast and reliable and super useful when I’m on a ski slope wearing gloves.
I know it’s April.
We still have snow in the mountains, here’s your proof.
The audio from the speakers could be better.
I listen to a lot of youtube videos, podcasts, and music while I work in my studio and I
immediately noticed that my Pixel 6 Pro has way more bass and a full sound than the S22
Ultra’s speakers.
The S22 Ultra sounds kinda tinny and flat.
It does come with Dolby Atmos and you can mess around with your equalizer settings to
make it sound better but out of the box, though I definitely feel like most users won’t
even realize or want to mess around with that.
I also noticed that the levels were different between the two speakers - with the bottom
one being louder than the top.
There’s no headphone jack, but Bluetooth 5.2 is excellent.
One perk I still love is that I can use Wireless PowerShare like previous gens to charge my
wireless earbuds on the back of the phone.
It also supports Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 via the WPC certified Wireless charging which
works with Qi.
Should you buy a 45W charger for this phone?
Probably not.
The different in speed of charging between a 45W adapter and a 25W adapter is minimal.
But the battery lasts a good long time for me, and I can easily use this phone all day
without putting it on the charger.
Let’s talk 5G!
It’s great.
Obviously this will vary depending on your location, physical barriers, and your cell
carrier of choice but these were my speeds in downtown Denver.
And lastly, cameras.
Here are the specs for the back lenses.
Pause the video if you want to read all of them at your own pace.
Samsung does a great job with their zoom quality, with the SuperZoom that can go up to 100x
digitally, 10x optical.
So for example, this TP Link router which I totally didn’t hack at this coffee shop
even though it’s just sitting out where anyone can pick it up...
This is going from ultra wide all the way up to 100x zoom.
My friend has an iphone 13, so I compared the zoom quality at 15x which is the highest
his could go with my S22 Ultra... and this one is so much more clear and easy to read.
Trying to take a photo of the mountains with zoom still amounts to a very grainy potato
of a photo, but something with striking contrast like this router seems easier for the phone
to compute and generate a cleaner photo.
Samsung definitely made upgrades to their aperture and the sensor so night time photos
are better, but still not as good as my Pixel.
They are still somewhat dark and grainy.
Ultrawide is great but does have some lens distortion around the edges whenever taking
photos of a flat surface - it’s definitely noticeable.
I love all the fun little camera app features like portrait photography and food photography.
The Food settings gives you some pretty beautiful photos of well... food.
Vibrant colors, clear, beautiful bokeh around the edges of the frame.
Artsy.
Portraits are hit or miss.
I find myself rarely choosing portrait mode just because half the time the subject cutout
is messy.
For regular photos, they are clear, lovely colors though more vibrant than accurate in
real life.
I do end up with lots of blurry photos from movement of a subject, and the shutter is
noticeably slower than my Pixels.
That’s definitely obvious whenever taking photos of animals...
I’m sure parents can relate.
In this case, again, burst mode is useful.
The front facing camera is very good for selfies and group photos.
Blues in the sky are a little saturated, but if you have a bunch of backlighting it does
a good job of lighting the focus of the photo.
Being able to do a wide angle photo with the front facing camera is such a blessing when
taking group photos.
Everyone looks really clear, the colors are saturated for sure.
I turned off the beauty mode so I could see how detailed this lens gets and it’s very
good at keeping details like flyaway hairs or the little bubbles in a glass of beer.
In terms of videos, the portrait video feature is really cool and did way better than my
expectations.
Here are some more examples of video on the S22 Ultra, both front and back cameras.
Pay close attention to how the ISO auto changes depending on the lighting, and how the audio
sounds.
This is a lovely, fully fledged flagship phone.
My main concerns with the square design and speakers are personal tastes and critiques,
not deal killers.
I like the curvature of the display but others may not.
The OS will hopefully continue to see updates to fix little random crashes but even those
are somewhat rare and don’t happen every day.
Having the SPen is such a blessing as a content creator, it makes accuracy of edits easier
and faster.
I love this phone, it’s definitely going to be a contender for my favorite phone of
2022, and if you want a flagship...
consider this one.